The members of Self Defense Family, the loose Albany-based collective, all came up through punk and hardcore. And for more than a decade, they’ve been using Self Defense Family to push those sounds in jagged, expressionist, unconventional directions. In sound and ethos, Self Defense Family’s records recall the things that were coming out of Washington, DC shortly after that city’s hardcore scene went through its Revolution Summer chrysalis period. But SDF are heavier, more tangled, and more specific in their clatter.

On their fourth album, Parquet Courts enlist Danger Mouse to produce an album of joyfully absurd, danceable rock music. It is straightforward but alien, simple but endlessly referential.

The B-52's is the debut album by the Athens, Georgia-based new wave band the B-52's. Also released in Germany as "Play Loud". The kitschy lyrics and mood, and the hook-laden harmonies helped establish a fanbase for the band, who went on to release several chart-topping singles. The B-52's peaked at number 59 on the Billboard 200, and "Rock Lobster" reached number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2003, the television network VH1 named The B-52's the 99th greatest album of all time. Shortly before his death, John Lennon said he enjoyed the album. In his 1995 book, The Alternative Music Almanac, Alan Cross placed the album ninth on the list of 10 Classic Alternative Albums. In 2012, the album was ranked number 152 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The B-52's was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Judas Christ is the seventh album from gothic band Tiamat. Despite keeping the gothic-metal based sound of Skeleton Skeletron, it takes more influences from gothic rock but fewer elements of heavy metal…

The Best of Fad Gadget is a double compilation album of singles and 12" mixes released by Fad Gadget (the stage name of Frank Tovey). The album is split between singles and B-sides on disc one, and 12" mixes and song reworkings on disc two. Mute Records released the album in December 2001, a few months before Frank Tovey's sudden death.

With the release of Skeleton Skeletron, Tiamat have effectively crossed over. Whereas early efforts such as Clouds and Wildhoney found the Swedish deathsters taking heavy metal in new and exciting directions by integrating elements of electronica and goth rock, their sixth album begs the question: have they gone too far? With its female backing vocals, lead-off single "Brighter than the Sun" sounds too much like Sisters of Mercy for its own good, while "Dust is our Fare" features a synthesizer intro borrowed straight from Bronski Beat's "Small Town Boy."…

A Deeper Kind of Slumber moves Tiamat even farther away from traditional heavy metal, with synthesizers dominating the arrangements and Johan Edlund doing completely away with metal growling in favor of an unearthly croon. Although it's not very metallic, the music is quite heavy in its own way, creating a numb, sleepy ambience that feels both introverted and resignedly pessimistic; perhaps this is due to Edlund's conceiving the album at home with little outside input, and his relationship difficulties at the time…

The Opposition were a South London-based post-punk band that welded the impassioned urgency of early Killing Joke to the graceful but pained atmospheric flourishes of the Chameleons. Marcus Bell, Mark Long, and Ralph Hall formed the band in 1979 and had their first single, Very Little Glory, released through their own Double Vision imprint by the end of that year. A short-lived deal with the Ariola label (Japan) produced a second single in 1980 that led to a contract with Disc AZ. Breaking the Silence, the band's self-produced debut full-length, was released in 1981.

The Early Days contributes to a musical niche with a compilation that serves as a testament to songs that should remain as they soundtracked numerous brilliant nights out.

Jill Tracy is both villainess and heroine of her own musical netherworld. The San Francisco-based artist has garnered multiple awards and a devoted following for her evocative cinematic music, sophisticated lyrics, old-world glamour, and curious passion for strange tales. Hailed by critics as a "femme fatale for the thinking man," Tracy was described by NPR's All Things Considered as "utterly intriguing… luring you into a magical kingdom solely of her creation." LA Weekly calls her "very distinctive and exciting." Her signature sound conjures up images of wonder cabinets, hidden passageways and opium dens, but at the same time, it's shockingly new. Jill Tracy coos in a voice of cut-velvet smoke, ornately framed by her dark classical-cum-parlour piano, creating a world of opulence and danger, of magic and madness. As one critic put it: "You know it's not safe here; but with Jill Tracy as your guide, you'll be in no hurry to leave." With her recent forays into filmmaking, writing, acting and theatre, Jill Tracy is redefining the image of modern day renaissance artist. But beneath her trademark sound and style lurks cold steel. No corporate-contrived cookie cutter blandness here. She is refreshing proof that smart… is sexy.

This June, The Cure will release a three-CD deluxe edition of their 1990 remix album Mixed Up. The set will feature a newly remastered version of the original set on disc one, a further CD of extra remixes (either from the original era, or from 1990) and a final CD of brand new Robert Smith ‘Torn Down’ remixes which we know about already, since they feature on one of the Record Store Day 2LP picture disc sets.

In 1981, Barry Andrews and Dave Allen formed Shriekback. Carl Marsh joined the duo, and shortly thereafter Shriekback formed Y records. It was through Y Records that they released their debut EP, the classic Tench, in 1982. This was followed in 1983 by their debut album, Care. Shriekback were on their way. Now, in 2018, Shriekback are back with their first studio album since 2015’s Without Real String Or Fish. As with that album, the line-up is Barry Andrews, Carl Marsh and Martyn Bakerr (drums) who has been working with the band since 1984 providing loops and drums. Allen left the band in 1986. Shriekback became a collective, of sorts, based around the trio of Marsh, Andrews and Baker.

That Which Is Not Said is an album about learning to accept oneself within, and accept the reality of all that comes from without. It’s an eponymous abstract exposition on navigating the realms of intimacy that the living world inevitably unveils and their equally inevitable fallout, the panic of abandonment and the loss of desire, and dragging oneself back up the hill once the lonely valleys lose their allure. Written and recorded over the course of two years in TWINS home studio in Atlanta with various synths, samplers, drum machines, and his very own flesh-and-muscle vocals, That Which Is Not Said is the result of countless studio sessions and experiments that were refined and distilled into the songs presented here, rigorously worked out through live performances and repeated critical overhaul.

As History: The Singles 85-91's title makes plain, this compilation bundles up all the group's singles released between these dates. 1985 was a turning point for the band, the year New Model Army relocated from the indie Abstract label to the majors and EMI. Thus fans will obviously have to look elsewhere for their earlier singles, particularly the ferocious "Vengeance," the best of their pre-EMI releases. But the six years bundled up here were just as stellar. The group released a dozen singles during this period, and the A-sides all appear here in chronological order, kicking off with the blind fury of "No Rest," down into the bitter irony of "51st State," through the desolation of science gone insane of "White Coats," across the outcasts' anthem of "Vagabonds," into the nostalgic valleys of "Green and Grey," diving into the barely suppressed rage of "Purity," and ending live in "Space." Americans may be surprised to find that every single one of New Model Army's singles charted in the U.K., albeit outside the Top 25. But that's a moot point; while Britain was in the midst of a Tory revolution that turned much of England's innate culture to dust (Scotland, Wales, and Ulster remained more immutable to their efforts), New Model Army soldiered on, a voice raging in the wilderness.

Twin Shadow proves he’s one of the most innovative artists of our time on his latest record Caer. The musician, born George Lewis Jr, aptly chose the title “Caer” – meaning “to fall” in Spanish – because he’s found himself on the verge of destruction before a new phase begins.